Hey Travellers! Ready for a train ride? I know you saw this train and thought to yourself, “What? I thought that Hogwarts was in Great Britain!?†Then you probably said, “That shade isn’t exactly scarlet… Oh, and this is a blog about Ecuador, so that really doesn’t make any sense.†You’re right. That wouldn’t make any sense.
This bad boy is used for something a little different than carting witches and wizards to school, although, the passengers would still probably say that the ride is equally as magical. This train's journey is along the “Devil’s Nose†in Ecuador. The Devil’s Nose is a section of railway between the towns of Alausi and Sibambe, where the rails navigate around a tight corner while on the side of a mountain overlooking a beautiful valley with a steep drop off on the side. This site has been described as the “the most difficult railway in the worldâ€
This track was originally built in 1908 to connect the coastal town of Guayaquil and Quito in the mountains with rails slithering through the Andes like a 448 km snake. The engineering challenges of this project gave this line the nickname “the most difficult railway in the world.†Despite the set backs, the rail line was opened, and today offers an attraction not likely to find anywhere else.